Honduran man pleads guilty in Florida mall bomb plot case

Updated 11:50 am, Wednesday, March 14, 2018

MIAMI (AP) — A Honduran man has pleaded guilty to U.S. charges in a plot to detonate a bomb in a Florida mall food court in support of the Islamic State extremist group.

Vicente Adolfo Solano pleaded guilty Wednesday in Miami federal court to a single count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, which carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence. Court records show Solano will be sentenced May 30.

The FBI says the 53-year-old Solano wanted to detonate a bomb last October at the Dolphin Mall near Miami but was actually working with undercover FBI operatives who gave him a fake bomb before his arrest.

Despite Solano's claims of Islamic State sympathies, the FBI says no direct links to terrorist groups were found. Solano never had real explosives.